Hot on the heels of the bad blood surrounding the blocked Rock Band patch and an impending lawsuit from the Romantics comes more bad news for Activision. According to Wired's Game|Life, the company has just been hit with a class action lawsuit over the issue of the Wii version of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock's mono soundtrack. Activision has already gone on record as being aware of the whole monaural problem of course, and promised to fix the problem by mailing out remastered game discs to all affected parties sometime in early 2008. "We are currently working with Nintendo" says the company "and are planning to issue an improved audio experience in future versions of the game," said the company. "We will be offering consumers replacement discs at no cost once they become available. We thank all of our customers for their support and patience." That's not good enough however for Samuel Livingston of San Diego and KamberEdelson LLC (his legal representation), who are planning on taking Activision to court over the issue. Livingston is seeking "actual damages, individual restitution, equitable relief, civil penalties, costs and expenses of litigation, including attorney's fees, and all further relief available" on behalf of those individuals who "would not have purchased the Guitar Hero III video game and/or paid as much for it had they known the truth about the product."

You can read a PDF of the court filing over here. The complaint accuses Activision of being consciously aware of the mono problem since October 2007 and make specific reference to the fact that Activision is leaving the problem untouched through the lucrative holiday season, despite the fact that the game advertises Dolby Pro Logic surround sound on the back of the Wii box. Oops.

While it's definitely suspect Activision allowed the Wii version go to stores with this information plainly incorrect, it remains to be seen whether the courts will actually allow someone to claim suffering and damages on account of something like lower-quality sound. False advertising, however, could end up being a lot more concrete and provable if legal push comes to shove.

While the company isn't commenting officially on the suit, the filing claims the court is capable of levying damages "of over $5,000,000" if it feels inclined to do so. Depending on how hot blooded you happen to be on the issue you might be able to score yourself a few bucks (or a new game) at Activision's expense if this thing ends up holding any water. 'Tis the season to be shaking down the big guys for petty cash, it seems.

Class action lawsuits (thanks liberals!) are such garbage . One asshole and his asshole lawyer representing a large group of people get most of the money, then the rest of the group get a few dollars for themselves.

Class action lawsuits (thanks liberals!) are such garbage . One asshole and his asshole lawyer representing a large group of people get most of the money, then the rest of the group get a few dollars for themselves.

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Lets please keep the politics out of this. I'm fairly liberal but in no way agree with this kind of abuse of the system.